Chasing the Storm
by greenkid
Summary: She thought she was out. But Veronica Mars is pulled back in when an old classmate is suddenly murdered, ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls comes to her for help, and someone starts stalking her. Not only is Veronica faced with the challenge of solving a deep mystery, but she also has to make some important decisions about where she's headed with her life.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hey guys! I'm giving a shot at a continuation of the series. Probably nothing near as good as the movie will be, but I'm going to try. Feel free to review, follow, etc. Thanks!

**Chapter One**

_Damn it!_

Never once in her life had Veronica Mars felt claustrophobic. The most she'd ever felt like that was during her senior year of high school when she was trapped in an elevator with a bunch of her classmates on their way to prom.

_Oh memories_, she thought to herself. _Veronica, you nostalgic girl, you._

She pulled out her cell phone and started looking for any new text messages, and was disheartened a little when she found out there were none. "Come on," she muttered to herself, trying to turn herself over into a more comfortable position.

She was feeling especially nostalgic today. _You've been locked in the trunk of a car before, Veronica_, she thought. _It isn't so bad. Remember? Wallace even did you a favor and came by to let you out._

The smile wiped off her face as she remembered Wallace wasn't here, and that she'd been sitting alone in the trunk of her car for about an hour now. She was getting to a point where it was almost necessary to feel claustrophobic. The darkness was starting to really get to her, but she didn't want to keep her cell phone on for an extended period of time for fear of wasting the battery.

She started swearing under her breath before turning over to face the other side of the trunk. This was getting awfully uncomfortable. But as she did so, she saw something sitting across from her, crammed next to the back seat of the car. She quickly dug her cell phone out of her pocket and turned on the flash before screaming at the sight of a dead man lying there.

He was elderly and reeked of not only death, but what smelled like alcohol. And upon closer inspection, Veronica started to realize she knew him. _Is that…? Is that Dean O'Dell? _It was. She hadn't seen the man in years. _What the…? What the hell?_

She could hear herself breathing more heavily by now. _I can't. I just can't, _she thought to herself before turning over to her other side. As she did so, she felt her hand hit something hard. Veronica slid her cell phone to the other side of her and felt her heart start beating faster as she realized her hand had actually made contact with a deceased Cassidy Casablancas' face.

_What the hell?! _she started screaming over and over to herself in her head. Just looking at him made her want to get her stun gun out, even if the pale young boy appeared to be nothing more than dead. His eyes, wide open, were pale and lifeless.

She moved her feet to try to edge farther away from the dead boy, making contact with what she soon found out to be the corpse of her old friend Meg Manning wearing her cheerleading uniform from Neptune High School.

"Who? What…?" Veronica heard herself muttering, her heartbeat going off the charts.

As she turned away from her dead friend's face she found Kendall Casablancas (AKA Priscilla Banks) laying beside her former stepson, the two of them staring back at her almost sadly. They didn't move, but their eyes almost asked for some kind of mercy from Veronica, as if she were the one to kill them.

She could feel her stomach grow heavier now, like she'd been stabbed in the gut. _It isn't real. It isn't real. It isn't real. _

She suddenly felt something sticking into her backside and only turned her head ever so slightly to see Woody Goodman's dead eyes meeting hers before she started full out screaming. She started desperately pounding at the top of the car with her fists and searching for her cell phone, now trapped underneath the pile of corpses. And before she knew it, Aaron Echolls had appeared to her left, giving the same charming smile he'd given whenever accepting an award.

_I'm trapped in here with murderers and rapists._

And just when she thought things couldn't get much worse, she could now feel dead weight directly on top of her. She slowly moved her eyes away from Aaron, her heart now beating faster than ever as she gasped for air. She couldn't catch much of the face, but she recognized Lilly Kane's eyes anywhere. And she wasn't sure if she'd ever screamed so loud in her life. Not when she found herself trying to escape rapist Mercer Hayes back at Hearst College years ago. Not that night on the roof of the Neptune Grand when Cassidy Casablancas tried to get her to jump to her death. Not when Aaron Echolls hid in the backseat of her car and locked her in a freezer in an attempt to get back the tapes Lilly had his from him. Not even the night terrors she found herself having in the months following Lilly's death.

She struggled to get Lilly off of her, but it was useless. There was no room in the trunk anymore. It was now filled with dead people. She couldn't even breathe anymore. Veronica tried desperately to grasp some air in her lungs, but there was no use. Her arms were now weighed down by the corpses, all of them staring back at her with their lifeless eyes.

_I'm going to die here_, she thought to herself, desperately attempting to scream as much as she could before her lungs gave out. Tears now dripped down her face, but she didn't really notice.

But before she knew it, the trunk of the car flung open. Stosh Piznarski found Veronica curled up in a ball, sobbing so much he could hear her gasping for air. Her hair was a tangled mess, her face beet red, and her cheeks soaked in tears and sweat.

"Veronica?" he asked. She didn't respond. "Veronica?"

She just lay there, still sobbing furiously. He could catch a hint of the sound of Veronica starting to choke on her own tears.

"Veronica!" Piz yelled as loud as he possibly could. He placed his hands on her shoulders and dragged her to the edge of the trunk before starting to pick her up and slowly place her on her feet.

Veronica opened her eyes. The light of day was harsh compared to the darkness she had just endured. She took one look at Piz before turning her attention back to the still open trunk. Nothing. There was nothing there besides an emergency kit and a folded blanket her father had given her for her Labaron years ago.

"None of it was there," she muttered. "It's all gone. They're all gone."

"Veronica," said Piz, "what are you talking about? What's gone?"

Veronica hardly felt like telling Piz that she had just spent the past five minutes being smothered to death by her dead friends and enemies.

"Nothing," she replied. "Nothing's gone. I just… I just… I don't know. I don't know what happened."

She peered down at the ground, wiping the tears away from her own eyes before looking up to Piz's. There was always something calming about them. They were sweet and innocent like a puppy's, but she didn't dare ever tell him that because she knew he would be offended, even if he didn't say it.

"Where were you?!" she found herself yelling. She went from calm to angry in less than a second, grounding herself back to reality. "I called you over an hour ago."

"Gee, how about a thank you?" Piz asked. "I got caught up at work."

"Because work is more important than rescuing your girlfriend from being locked in the trunk of a car," Veronica said.

"Might I add it was the trunk of your _own _car?" he retorted. "What kind of person gets themselves locked in the trunk of their own car anyway? I mean, I know you're an odd individual, but there comes a line."

_I'm the type of person who gets themselves locked in the trunk of their own car_, Veronica thought. This was the second time it happened. The first time she'd been left unconscious by the Neptune High tritons and had to call Wallace to come to the high school at night to let her out. She'd probably even waited longer for Wallace Fennel to come rescue her that time, but she wasn't about to tell Piz that. Besides, that experience wasn't so traumatic.

"What happened anyway?"

"Nothing," she blurted.

_Veronica, I'm assuming you didn't just accidentally lock yourself into the trunk of your car. _Wallace's response to her getting locked in her car the first time would usually make her laugh, but she wasn't feeling it now.

"Okay, so you're just going to lie to me and expect it to be okay?" Piz asked. "If you expect me not to lie to you, Veronica, I'd expect the same from you. It's the least you can do."

Veronica studied Piz before saying much else. He now wore a dress shirt and tie she'd picked out for him a few months ago. He'd only cut his hair shorter about six months ago. At the time it was a drastic change, but she'd gotten used to seeing it. Yet she still saw him as the sweet, cute boy she met on her first day at Hearst several years ago. _It's in the eyes._

"You don't have anything important to lie about, Piz."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Piz, I'm used to lying about breaking and entering into peoples' houses. I'm used to lying about staying out late to stake out people's homes. About getting involved in murder investigations. Getting my dad to take a paternity test. Taking a flight to see my deadbeat mom to get her to go to rehab. You? You're used to lying about whether or not you find our neighbor attractive."

Piz didn't exactly know what to say. "Well, maybe she is a little bit," he uttered, "but that's not the point here. I thought you were done doing this. What, did you manage to piss off a coworker at your law firm or something?"

She shook her head. "The truth? I don't know what happened. I didn't see anything. I was walking to my car and someone grabbed me from behind. I couldn't get a good look at them. The must have taken my keys and pushed me into the trunk before driving off."

"Veronica," he said, "this is serious. We have to go to the police."

"No," she told him.

"Are you serious right now?"

"Yes, I'm serious. Piz, I don't want to have to follow up with this. Who knows what happened? And how the hell am I going to be any help to the police anyway? What happens in New York stays in New York."

Piz looked upset. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it.

"Fine," he said. "There's no stopping Veronica Mars from getting what she wants I guess. I'm going to stop by the office before heading home. Please don't get yourself locked in your trunk again. And if you need anything, call."

Veronica nodded. "Thank you, Piz."

He got back in his own car, parked directly next to hers, and drove away. She stood there for a few moments longer, not quite sure what she was doing. She was glad Piz hadn't asked her why she was parked in a parking garage a few blocks away from their apartment. But part of her knew Piz had learned not to dig too deep by now, and something about that worried her a little, as if he wasn't even trying anymore.

_Well, it's what you wanted, wasn't it, Veronica?_

Her mind brought her back to the many times she'd argued with Logan for trying to dig too deep into her own life. But Piz, Piz was different. He seemed to be accepting things how he wanted them to be. The boy was an optimist and she liked that about him, but there was definitely something a little disturbing about it.

She still didn't exactly feel like telling him the truth. That someone had been following her for the past week or maybe even longer. She could see them parked outside of her work every time she had to leave. She noticed them sometimes when she would leave the apartment, and they would occasionally follow her around town as she ran errands. Always in a blue sedan.

She'd finally started to take matters into her own hands today. She took her car to work on a day she wasn't scheduled, only to go inside and sneak back out to hide in her car for hours. When they got tired of waiting for her to leave, she followed the sedan closely to this parking garage. And that's when she was dragged out of her car by a man wearing a suit and aviator sunglasses before being thrown into the trunk of hr own car.

She didn't exactly know what to do now. She'd given up investigating years ago, but she couldn't exactly let this go. Something was obviously going on and something needed to be done about it. She didn't trust the police to handle it and she didn't trust Piz to be able to wrap his head around the idea of someone stalking her. She sighed. For the first time, returning home to Neptune almost seemed a little relieving.

But then again, it meant visiting all the skeletons, or in this case, ghosts, in her closet. And that was never a pleasant thing, as displayed by what down in the trunk of her car. She took one last glimpse at the trunk before shutting it. Chills ran down her spine as she grabbed the spare keys Piz had left for her on the top of the car. She got in and jammed the keys in the ignition before turning them.

Veronica Mars had never once in her life felt claustrophobic until now.

* * *

><p><em>Twenty-one.<em>

Veronica could hardly fathom the word, the combination of twenty and one. One year past twenty. Five years since she sat at the DMV, waiting in like to take her driver's test in Neptune, California. Almost five years since the murder of her best friend, Lilly. Four since she met her new best friend, Wallace. Three since her classmates were murdered during a bus explosion. Two since she graduated from Neptune High and met Piz. One since she took an internship at the FBI in Virginia.

She'd like to say the birthday cards were piling up on her table, but in truth, Veronica Mars wasn't one to have very many friends. But she supposed she was lucky to have the few that she did.

She smiled, looking at the birthday card with the unicorn drawn on it that she'd received from her father. She opened it to read it one more time.

_It's not every day that a girl turns__ 21. Hope you have a magical day!_

She laughed. Her dad had scratched out "9" and written "22" in its place. Her father knew her all too well. She called him up that day and asked him when the real thing would be coming in the mail.

Lying next to them were two cards from her friends Wallace and Mac. Neither was overly personalized, but had messages scribbled inside of them.

_How's it going Mars? Can't wait for you to come back to Neptune! Hearst it practically calling your name. Senior year! Have a great birthday!_

_Wallace_

_PS, I baked you some snicker doodles, but they didn't turn out as great as the ones you made me. Long story short, they ended up in the trash and my mom no longer trusts me to use our oven. Sorry!_

She picked up Mac's card and started to read it.

_Neptune has been especially lame this summer without you. I hope you know that. By the way, Butters called me about a week ago incase you were wondering if he still has my phone number. I considered not sending you a birthday card because of that, but I guess I can't really stay mad at you. Happy birthday._

_Mac_

Veronica smiled. It would have been nice to get at least a few more cards. Hell, even a card from her mother would have been nice, but she knew she should just be happy with what she received.

"All the things I did for people back in high school and this is what I get," she said. "Oh well."

_You should be lucky you even made it to twenty-two with your history._

She turned away from the kitchen table to see pictures of her and Piz on her birthday. She looked excited posing next to her birthday cake, a cheap store bought one picked up by Piz on the same day.

Veronica jumped a little as Piz opened the door. He laughed when he saw this. "What? You scared of big old me?"

Veronica didn't necessarily blame herself for being scared. She had a pretty traumatic experience earlier in the day. Hell, she's had some pretty traumatic experiences throughout high school and college. But she wasn't going to bring down Piz's mood by bringing that up, or her own for that matter.

"So I was thinking drinks tonight?" Piz asked. "On account of we made it through the summer."

"Summer's not over yet."

"Well it's coming to a close," said Piz.

"Besides, you don't have to take me out for drinks. We're not nineteen and awkwardly starting to date anymore."

"As I recall, the only times I ever got to go out drinking when I was nineteen were because of the fake ID you made for me."

"Dinner?" Piz asked. "Look, I don't even care if we just grab burgers. I'm starving."

"Fine," said Veronica. "That works. Just let me go change first."

She'd been covered in sweat while locked in the trunk of her car and she was starting to realize how bad she smelled. It reminded her of being in her high school locker room. Except, of course, she wasn't receiving dirty looks from other girls and having her clothes taken and thrown in the toilet.

Piz waited silently as Veronica moved from the kitchen over to their bedroom. She winced a little, reminding herself that her dad knew the two were living together, which probably meant he knew the two were having sex. _He had to have known about Duncan and Logan_.

_Veronica, why are you thinking about this_? she asked herself. Maybe because she missed her dad a lot these days.

She took off her shirt and went to the bathroom to grab some deodorant before her cell phone started buzzing.

"Hello?" she uttered after answering the call. It was an unknown number. There was nothing but silence and a bit of breathing on the other end. "Mom, I swear to God, if this is you again, I don't want to talk to you."

She heard a _click _before she could say anything else. "Well screw you too," she whispered under her breath. She didn't have time to play these little games anymore. She had absolutely no interest in talking to whoever was on the other end of the phone if they were going to act like that.

As she pulled a new top over herself, she heard the phone buzzing again. She quickly picked it up and put it up to her ear without checking to see who it was. "I suggest you stop calling me and doing your little breathing act before I call the cops on your ass."

"Veronica?"

It was a female voice on the other end. The color in Veronica's cheeks immediately flushed away.

"Veronica? What's wrong? I was calling to make sure you were still coming. I've only been waiting ten minutes, but it's not a big deal. I mean, I don't have much else to do anyway. If you can't, it's cool."

"I'm so sorry," Veronica said. "No, you know what? I'm gonna be there. Give me fifteen minutes. I'll see you then, okay?"

She didn't even give the girl on the other end time to respond before hanging up the phone. Veronica grabbed her bag and returned to the kitchen, where Piz still stood quietly waiting. _Like a dog waiting to be let out_, she thought.

"Change of plans," she told him. "I can't go. Rain check?"

"Veronica, what could you possibly have to do? You're not exactly best friends with your coworkers, and you can't use work as an excuse. It's a Friday night."

"Remember my friend from high school I told you about?" she said. "I made plans with her last week and I totally forgot. I can't blow her off though. She was really looking forward to this."

Piz sighed. "It's cool. You do what you gotta do. If you need me, I'll be on the couch, sulking while watching bad TV."

Veronica grinned. "Sounds like my man." She knew he was joking, but she also knew he was being partly serious. She'd been letting him down like this a lot lately and she was actually starting to feel guilty about it. But if she went with Piz, she would feel guilty about ditching her friend. She sighed before leaving the apartment.

* * *

><p>"So make that more like twenty-five minutes," said Veronica, "but in my defense, traffic was bad. And you've been sitting here for more than half an hour waiting for me, so I know you're probably pissed."<p>

"It's okay," the young woman said. "What am I going to do about it? Tease you about the boob cream you ordered your freshman year of high school?"

Veronica gave Jackie Cook a disapproving look as she sat down across from her. She was still wearing her waitress uniform with her son sitting beside her at the booth. They were in the very corner of the diner. Jackie's mother stood behind the counter eyeing the three of them sitting together. Veronica had only met her a few times, but the woman had already seemed to dislike her.

"You haven't changed one bit," said Veronica, picking up the menu placed before her. This was a joke on Veronica's end, as Jackie had changed a lot in the years since leaving Neptune behind, or rather in the time since the two of them met at Veronica's place of employment.

"How's NYU?" Veronica asked.

"So-so," Jackie replied. "I should be done in December. I'm thinking about taking a trip to visit my dad before fall semester starts. Maybe my mom will let the little one come with me this time, but we'll see. Still no word from Fennel?"

"Wallace is a-wall," said Veronica. "For right now. I think he's still basking in the sun while he still can before school starts back up again. Probably shooting some hoops with the basketball team. I know he misses me though. He's gotta be bored out of his mind without me there."

Veronica found it funny that Jackie had always asked about Wallace during their meetings when the girl had never picked up her phone to even call her ex for the past two years. She supposed it was for the best though. There was no point in giving him hope or pulling him back into the past when the two obviously couldn't be together. She just hadn't moved on. And neither had he. She recalled him going on a few dates over the past few years, but there hadn't been anyone too important since Jackie.

"I'm sure of it. And Piz, right?"

"Yeah," said Veronica. She'd brought up Piz a few times, mentioning that he and Wallace were roommates their freshman year. "He's back at home right now."

"Funny, I always thought you'd end up with Logan. You always had eyes for him, you know? But Piz sounds like a great guy."

The mention of Logan's name sent more shivers up Veronica's spine. She wanted to tell Jackie to not say his name again, but she knew that was rude and it would just tell her that she still had beef with him.

"Jackie," her son started, "can I go back over to Mommy now?"

"No, honey," she told him. "Mommy's still working. She'll be off soon and then we can go home."

She smiled weakly at Veronica. Veronica knew that Jackie was still disappointed in herself for leaving him in her mother's care to live with her father. She hadn't tried explaining to him that she was the boy's real mother because it would just be too confusing. She cared for him, but she was more like a much older sister.

"So anything interesting happening in the life of Veronica Mars lately?"

"Nothing too interesting." She thought of telling her about getting locked in her trunk earlier in the day, but she knew that's not what Jackie wanted to hear. "One more week in the city and then it's back to Neptune."

"That'll be nice."

"Yeah, I guess so," said Veronica, staring at the table. Jackie's mother stood behind the counter, flipping through the channels on a small flat screen television hung above the bar. She finally stopped on a news station.

"In other news, Miss Southern California 2008 Madison Sinclair was found brutally murdered today in her home in Neptune, California this morning. Police are still investigating, but they say it appears the twenty-one-year-old was stabbed to death last night."

Veronica froze. She was surprised at the announcement that Madison was crowned winner of a beauty pageant, but even more surprised to hear that the girl was murdered. _Who would want to kill Madison?_

"Hey, didn't we go to high school with her?" Jackie asked, looking up at the TV screen, which was now showing pictures of Madison. "Yeah, she was that bitch who accused me of stealing money from that winter carnival our senior year."

"She was that bitch who did a lot of mean things," said Veronica, recalling the time Madison has given her the drugged drink at Shelly Pomroy's party right before she was raped, and the time Madison slept with Logan when the two were briefly broken up.

In a second, her phone started to buzz again. Veronica opened up her bag and dug around for it before finding it. _This better not be that creep again._

When she looked at the caller ID, she was almost stunned. She wasn't sure the guy had called her in nearly a year. Why now? Especially right after Madison had been stabbed to death? Veronica wanted to believe it was a coincidence, but there didn't seem to be a lot of coincidences in her life. She just stared down at the screen, trying to decide if she should pick up or not.

"Veronica, are you okay?" she heard Jackie ask.

Veronica wasn't paying attention though. She just kept reading the caller ID over and over again in her mind.

_Logan Echolls._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Okay, so I published this chapter earlier this month. I decided to make a few minor changes. I'm kind of just flying by the seat of my pants here. Originally I had this take place right before Veronica's senior year at Hearst, but I decided to take it back a year.

Also, I'd like to say a few more things. This is technically continuation of the series, but it doesn't really fit with the movie. Also, please please please don't be turned off by Veronica/Piz. I'd like to start off by saying Piz is a really cool guy and kind of reminds me of myself. That being said, there's no guarantee Veronica is going to stay with Piz throughout my story. There's also no guarantee she'll be with Logan. The central focus isn't necessarily romance here. But who knows? Something might happen.

Adding onto that, this story was originally titled _Neptune Rising_. Seeing as I accidentally named it after a popular Veronica Mars fansite (I knew about it, but kind of forgot it existed - but check it out if you haven't heard of them, they're on twitter and facebook too), I feel like I should change the name.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Here's chapter two! Thanks for reviews and follows, and of course reading!

**Chapter Two**

"What's the matter, little bro?"

Logan Echolls had been used to his older sister, Trina, calling him that for most of his life, but in recent years, he'd gotten accustomed to not hearing her refer to him as "little bro" twenty-four/seven. He was starting to wonder why his father had never once thought about murdering Trina when he was alive. Her whiny, obnoxious voice proved too much for Logan. He tried to escape the house as much as possible, but he only had so much opportunity.

"Didn't you hear me?" Trina Echolls asked, positioning herself right in front of the TV. "You've been sulking here all day. Is this because your latest girlfriend broke up with you? Aww, poor Logan."

Logan didn't look amused as he slid to the other end of the couch in an attempt to see the TV again. "Trina, can you please move your stupid ass out of my way?"

"Someone _is _pissy today," she said as she sat beside her brother. "I was just trying to be a good big sister, you know, on account of the whole our parents being dead thing."

Logan rolled his eyes. Trina sure loved to milk that one. He had never once asked for anyone's sympathy, yet she was always the one to bring up the fact that their parents were gone.

"I thought you liked that," he muttered. "I mean, you get more attention this way. Who knows? You might not even have gotten to do that stupid TV movie."

He nudged his head to a framed movie poster hung up on the wall. It replaced the several posters their father once had hanging on the walls before the house burnt down. The movie poster had been especially made for Trina to hang up on the wall. The title read: "Little Girl Lost: The Aaron Echolls Tragedy." An unknown actor that looked nothing like their father was placed at the forefront, with Trina standing next to two girls and a boy behind him.

"Oh, shut up," she said. "I'm just trying to make light of a bad situation. I think you should be doing the same, Mr. Pissy Pants. You know what? You should find something constructive to do instead of sitting around the house all day watching TV."

Logan sighed. Why did he ever agree to move back in with his sister? He knew now that it was a bad idea, but at the time… he still thought it was a bad idea. He was just hoping it would surprise him. He had grown tired of living in a hotel suite all alone and really had no one else to turn to. Dick had moved back into his old home with his father over a year ago. When Trina approached him with the idea moving into their old home, now rebuilt, he was initially hesitant, but he eventually decided to go along with it.

But now... Now he spent his afternoons sitting home alone on the couch, hoping Trina would be off working that day so he could enjoy some peace and quiet. With school starting up again soon, he was hoping to escape, but somehow dorm life didn't exactly seem like a viable option for him.

"Maybe it's better you two are broken up," said Trina. "I don't think walking in on you two making out counts as introducing your girlfriend to your big sister. And any girl you're not willing to introduce to your family might not be a keeper."

_Maybe they're not the problem, _he thought. _Maybe it's you._

"Whatever happened to that girl who spent Thanksgiving with us a few years ago? What was her name? Paige? Penny?"

"Parker." Logan refused to look at her this point. His eyes were set on his feet, now resting on the coffee table. He was surprised Trina even remembered the girl. They'd only met that one time, over Thanksgiving of his sophomore year of college. She decided to stay with Logan instead of going home to Denver, much to the dismay of her parents. They'd spent their summers apart from each other and got back together when school started up again. They lasted until Christmas Eve.

"What happened to her?"

"We broke up," he answered before grabbing the remote and turning the TV off. As if it wasn't obvious enough. Every one of Logan's relationships ended badly, even with the few girls he briefly dated over the last two years. Parker was the last person he actually felt something for. He couldn't help but be at this house now and think about his mother all the time. She was a great woman, and great women are hard to find. Usually they're underappreciated. Why couldn't his dad see how amazing she was? Instead he had to go around sleeping with other women, including Lilly Kane.

_Lilly. _As if Trina's bad TV movie weren't reminder enough, being here reminded him of her from time to time. It felt like a lifetime ago since he last saw her. Sometimes he worried he was forgetting about her and felt guilty about it even though he knew she probably wouldn't care. He couldn't help but laugh thinking about her. How young and stupid he was when the two were together. It's pretty amazing what a few years could do to someone. He thought the two were completely in love. He had even had dreams of marrying her someday, but now he realized what they had wasn't all that great, and it wouldn't have lasted past her high school graduation. After being with someone like Veronica, he knew what really caring for someone was like.

"You know, I really need to go get some fresh air," he said. "You're right, Trina. I should get out. I'm gonna go see what Dick's up to."

Trina looked even more confused as her brother got up off the couch to grab his wallet and keys off the kitchen counter. "Wait!" she called after him. "I wasn't trying to get you to leave! I don't have anything to do!"

He just kept walking. _I have to get out of this house, _he thought to himself.

* * *

><p><em>What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?<em>

Cindy Mackenzie couldn't help think of her good friend, Veronica Mars, as she sat in the driver's seat of her green bug, parked across the street from a home she'd only ever seen a few times in her life. She felt like a stalker sitting there, but telling herself that Veronica used to do this all the time made her feel somewhat better. And if there's anyone she knew who had herself together, it was Veronica.

But somehow, telling herself that didn't make her feel much better. She'd been sitting there for about half an hour now. No, she wasn't holding a listening device up to her ear or holding out an expensive camera to take dirty pictures when the residents walked out. She was contemplating going up to the front door and knocking. It would be either the best or worst decision of her life.

_Well, there were a few probably much worse decisions in my life, _she thought. _But this might be up there with them. _

It was anyone's guess. If she had to guess how well the outcome would be on a scale of selling 09ers back their purity tests to renting a hotel room with Beaver the night of graduation, she wouldn't be able to come up with an answer.

_Go up to the door already. Come on, grow a pair, _she thought to herself.

Mac looked away from the house for a moment. _I can't believe I just thought that to myself. That's something my Nascar-loving family would say. What the hell am I even doing here anyway? This is stupid._

The smell of the bouquet of flowers sitting in her passenger seat suddenly hit her nose. She'd picked them up on the way over. She tried looking for a card, but gave up, as she didn't have good experience with this sort of thing and had no idea what card to pick. _I've already spent money on these people and I don't even know them… Well, isn't that the point I guess?_

She finally mustered up the courage to get out of the car. Mac grabbed the flowers and shut the door to her car behind her before hesitantly walking over to the front yard. The front lawn had been cut perfectly, and they had obviously spent a lot of time and money landscaping. It looked nothing like her own yard. The driveway had a few cars parked in it. The one nearest to the front door looked shiny. It was probably just a few years old. The license plate read "GOTZMINE."

_Gotzmine? _Mac thought. _Seriously?_

She immediately turned her attention away. _You're trying to be nice here._

In a moment, Mac found herself standing a few inches away from the front door. She moved her hand to place it by the door, hesitating to knock.

_What are you going to say? 'Hi, you might remember me. I'm your biological daughter that got switched at birth with your now adoptive daughter. I hated her in high school and thought she was a total bitch, but when I found out she died last night, I rushed over here to say how sorry I am. Maybe you could invite me inside for tea and we can catch up on the past twenty years while you're still grieving.'_

She shook her head, suddenly realizing how stupid this was. How stupid she was for even considering this. She looked down at the flowers before placing them down on the front stoop and sprinting back to her car to drive away. This was all a little too much to handle.

* * *

><p>"So, I've already got spring break all planned out next year. So don't you go making any plans, you hear me? No meeting any girls that are gonna drag you on their leash and make you their little bitch."<p>

Logan wasn't sure if his good friend Dick Casablancas was referring to Parker or Veronica. No one had made him their "little bitch" since those two. And Dick? Logan wasn't sure if he'd had anything like that with anyone ever.

"Sure, whatever you say," said Logan. "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking head down to Tijuana for the week. We'll pick up some beer, some weed, and hopefully some girls."

Logan rolled his eyes. He supposed he couldn't expect much else from his now best friend. _When are you gonna grow up? _Logan thought. Then again, Logan hadn't done all that much growing up recently. He'd probably done more growing up in his last two years of high school than the three years he'd spent in college.

"We're going all out. Senior year baby!"

Logan didn't want to bring down the mood by saying anything about Dick not being able to graduate on time with his failed classes. He would graduate in five years if he was lucky. But Logan shouldn't have been passing judgment really. His GPA wasn't the greatest. He often wondered if his business degree would help him out at all in life.

Logan looked around Dick's room. Posters of bikini-clad women were spread across the wall. A stop sign they had stolen their sophomore year of high school was perched by the door. His clothes were thrown about everywhere. The only thing that mattered was that the bed was clear and the TV could be seen. And as they sat on his bed with Playstation controllers in hand, Logan realized that almost nothing had changed in the past five years. Sure, the both of them had gone through a lot, but Dick's room still looked the same as it did when he was sixteen. And he still acted the same too. Besides brooding from time to time, Logan almost liked to think he hadn't changed that much. It was almost comforting to hope that he hadn't been deeply damaged by all the mishaps in his life.

"What's wrong with you today?" Dick asked. "I'm kicking your ass in this game. It's like you're not even trying."

"Nothing," said Logan, quickly brushing this off. "Just, I don't know. Theresa and I broke up the other night, but it's not a big deal."

"Nope, not a big deal," said Dick. "Girls are overrated anyway."

Same thing he'd been saying since high school.

They suddenly heard a knock at the door and looked up to see "Big Dick" standing in the doorway. Wearing a business suit and tie, it was like he hadn't changed at all either, despite spending almost two years in hiding and a year in prison. The cheery smile on his face indicated that he was the same businessman he'd always been. Logan was almost expecting him to start trying to sell him a used car, or in his case, stock in fraudulent hotel business.

"How are you boys doing?"

Dick didn't look away from the game, so Logan took it upon himself to answer. "Just fine, Mr. C."

"Good," he said with a grin. "Well I was just about to head out. I just wanted to let you know there's some leftover pizza in the fridge if you're hungry. Otherwise, Dick, feel free to call me up and I can pick something up on the way home."

"Thanks, Mr. C."

He stood there, waiting for Dick to say something, but Dick didn't turn his attention away from the screen. He was pushing buttons as fast as he could with his mouth open, staring intensely at the TV. Logan wasn't trying at all at this point.

After a few seconds, he muttered, "Thanks Dad."

"Alright, well I'll see you boys later."

Logan waved goodbye before the man left.

"_God_," Dick uttered. "The guy is such… such a…"

"Dick?" Logan finished for him.

"Not my choice of word, but I guess you could say that."

"He was just trying to be nice," said Logan. "You gotta give him credit for that."

"No. What he's doing is trying to overcompensate."

Logan was about to ask what for, but he quickly stopped himself. That would have been bad. Of course Logan knew what for. For participating in criminal behavior. For leaving his family alone to go into hiding and eventually go to prison. And for just being a shitty dad in general, to both him and Beaver.

He wanted to tell Dick that he should be happy he has a father, but Logan knew sometimes that isn't always true. He was glad his own father was gone. And besides, Dick already had to deal with losing a brother.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much starving. I'm gonna go grab some pizza from the fridge."

"Alright," said Dick.

Logan was only somewhat hungry. He mostly just wanted to get out of the room to give Dick a bit of time to cool off. He didn't sound overly upset, but Logan knew him well enough to understand that he was. Besides, Logan needed his own alone time. He'd run over here to get away from Trina, but now he didn't want to be with Dick. Kind of ironic considering he'd been telling himself that he hated being alone these days. He supposed he just had to be with the right person.

As Logan got down the stairs and started heading to the kitchen, the doorbell rang. He was reluctant to go answer it, but knew Dick probably wasn't going to. He walked back over to the front door and opened it. A middle-aged man wearing a suit greeted him.

"Hi there. Logan Echolls?"

Logan looked puzzled. Why was someone reaching him at Dick's house? "Yeah, actually, but this isn't my house. If you're looking for Mr. Casablancas, he - ."

"Oh no," he stopped Logan. "I'm looking for you actually. I stopped by your house and your sister said I could find you here. She wanted to know why, of course, but that's private."

"Not private to me, though, right?"

"No, of course not." The man started fumbling around in his pockets looking for something before pulling out what looked like an envelope. He handed it to Logan. "You are twenty-one, right?"

Logan nodded. He stared at the envelope for a second before starting to open it. A folded over piece of paper sat inside. He began reading it.

_Logan,_

_I know how hard all of this must have been on you and I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything really. I just don't think I can handle much more of this, so it's time for me to go. I'm going to miss you dearly. I can only hope you turn out to be a better man than your father. I'm sorry it has to be this way. It's my intentions that by the time you see this, you'll be 21 and have already grown as a person. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to see that person someday._

_Mom_

A phone number was scribbled underneath "Mom" at the bottom. Logan immediately looked back up after he finished reading it to start interrogating the man, but he was already in his car about to leave.

"Hey!" Logan called. "Hey, wait! Don't leave! I need to talk to you."

The man started backing out of the driveway as Logan started sprinting after him. He was gone before Logan could even really try to catch up to him. He was left breathless standing in the street. By time he got back inside, a million thoughts were racing inside his head at once. The most prominent one? _What the hell is this?_

He sat down on the couch in the living room to read it again. And there he sat reading the small letter over and over to himself. He wasn't quite sure how much time had passed.

_This has got to be some kind of joke._

His mind brought him back to his mother's funeral. He wasn't convinced then that she was actually gone. It wasn't until he'd hired Veronica to help him look for her and found nothing that he started to accept it. And now, after all these years, this. What did it mean? Was it just some sort of odd note she scribbled down before jumping off that bridge in hopes of making him feel better? Was it some sort of encrypted letter trying to let him know that she was still alive and in hiding?

He picked up his cell phone and began dialing the phone number on the paper. He didn't recognize it as a local area code. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Logan waited as the phone started to ring. It immediately connected him to voicemail. He couldn't even get a sense of who owned the phone, as it was the generic voicemail message that came with the phone.

He tried several more times before giving up and leaving a message. "Hi," he said right away, unsure of what he should be saying. "This… this is Logan Echolls. I got… sort of a weird letter in the mail today with this phone number written on it, and I was wondering if you could call me back as soon as possible? Thanks."

He hung up and placed the cell phone in his pocket. Logan tried to remain calm, but it was hard. His heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. _Let's try to think rationally about this, _he thought as he got up from the couch. _Who the hell am I kidding? I'm not going to be able to think rationally about this._

He started making his way back upstairs while playing with his cell phone. He eventually found himself in his contacts, going through a list of endless people he didn't really care about, until he stopped on someone's name. Veronica Mars.

_She might be the only one who can make sense of all of this, _he thought. _But then again, she probably still hates me. Well, who knows? It's been a while. I'm probably going to sound like a psychopath on the phone._

He paused before dialing her number and placing the phone up to his ear. His heart was almost beating faster now, as if he were almost more nervous about calling Veronica than he was about receiving that letter. He waited and waited. The ringing felt like it went on forever. And then… nothing.

"Hi, you've reached Veronica Mars. I'm not able to pick up the phone at the moment. It's 2009 and I expect you already know what to do by now without me telling you."

_Typical Veronica._

He contemplated trying her again, but he came to conclusion that the best solution to this was not bombarding his ex-girlfriend with calls when she might be busy. Logan was surprised to hear nothing but silence coming from Dick's room as he approached it.

The TV and Playstation were both off, and Dick's face was buried in his hands. His arms were shaking a little. Logan had rarely ever seen him like this.

"Everything okay?"

Dick immediately moved his head up to face Logan. He hadn't been crying or anything, but he just looked a little shaken up. It was odd. Had his dad really gotten to him that much?

"I just turned the satellite back on when you went downstairs. I was flipping through the channels and the news came on."

"What happened?"

"It's Madison."

Logan appeared puzzled. He wasn't sure he'd heard Dick mention Madison Sinclair more than a few times over the past few years.

"What about Madison?"

"She's dead."

* * *

><p>"Hello?"<p>

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Veronica would have pinned this on her new heavy breathing mystery caller, but she knew perfectly well who this was. Him not saying anything described perfectly what their relationship had become.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Veronica asked.

"It's me."

"Who's 'me?'"

"Veronica, cut the crap," Logan said.

"I'm _sorry_, do I know you?" Her tone of voice was harsh. Probably harsher than it should have been, but she didn't care. What did she have to lose speaking to him this way anyway?

"You know what? I called you because I needed your help with something, but I'm starting to think it was a bad idea."

Veronica sat down at the kitchen table. She had just gotten home from the diner and picked up Logan's call on the way in. Piz was nowhere to be found when she opened the door, and she was almost relieved. She wouldn't have been able to come up with a lie about whom she was talking to.

"What do you want, Logan?"

"I need your help. Some guy showed up at my place today and gave me a letter from my mom."

"But, Logan, your mom's…"

"Dead? Yeah, I remember. It was a little note she wrote for me. There was a phone number written on the bottom."

"And…?"

"I need to know whose phone it is," said Logan on the other line. "I'm no expert, but this kinda adds something new to the mix here. Veronica, she made it sound like she might still be alive."

Veronica hesitated to say anything. How could she put this without being a bitch? "Look, Logan, I know we aren't on the greatest terms. I know we haven't actually talked since God knows when, and I know that fact makes me seeing this that much worse, but have you considered the thought that you might not have anything here? Some random guy you don't know shows up at your house with a letter that may or may not even be from your mom. Why would she be in hiding? Why would she fake her own death and stay in hiding all these years, Logan?"

"Gee, Veronica, I was hoping that's what you could figure out."

"I'm sorry," she said. "But Logan, I don't know if I can do anything for you. Maybe track the phone number, but who's to say that will lead you anywhere. Remember the Charlie Stone incident? This could just be another case of that. It probably is to tell you the truth."

He paused. "I don't care."

"I can't just drop everything and come running to you now," said Veronica. "I have a week left at my internship."

"New York?"

"Yeah. How did you know that?"

"I know things."

Veronica paused. Had Logan Echolls been stalking her?

"I can't. I'm going to be here for another week. And when I get home I'm going to have to spend some time with my dad before going back to school. Maybe I can swing by after that."

"No, that's not good enough." There was a sense of urgency in her voice. The same urgency he tended to have when he asked her for help.

"Funny," she started, "you're kissing my ass for a favor… again, and then you start going all jackass on me."

"Come on, Veronica. This is serious."

"I told you what I could do. You don't like it? Find someone else."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then "Fine. I'll pay you twenty grand just to get your ass back here ASAP to look into this."

Veronica was about to curse him out when she stopped herself. Logan sounded incredibly desperate. Even if she wanted to go home, what would she tell Piz? There was no way he would understand if she told him the truth. And what would she do about her internship? She worked her ass off to get here just to leave a week early? Her dad would probably be disappointed in her too.

But on the other hand, the money would put a huge dent in helping to pay off her student loans. She might even be able to set some aside to put towards getting her own place after graduation.

The truth was, a huge part of the reason she didn't want to was because she would feel immensely guilty taking Logan's money when she knew there was a 99% chance he wouldn't find anything. She recalled ripping up the check she gave him their junior year of high school after their first search for his mother led them to a dead end.

"Fine…"

"Cool," he responded. "Do me a favor and let me know when you can get a flight back home. I'll be waiting."

_Click_.

That was it? "I'll be waiting"? Veronica rolled her eyes, cursing herself for just agreeing to that. Neptune High School's Class of 2006's Biggest Ass (well, maybe second to Dick) just asked her for help and she said yes.

_For how smart you are, Veronica, you sure do some stupid things_, she thought as she sat herself down.

Veronica took a look around the crappy old apartment she and Piz had inhabited for the past three months. After her freshman year of college, she set a plan for herself. She figured she had to start planning out her life at some point. At some point, everyone had to make the decision to grow up. And she supposed that was a good time.

Her internship at the FBI had been ruined by everything that happened right before she left. The whole escapade with Piz and Logan, sneaking into Jake Kane's house and stealing from him, causing her father the sheriff's election… just to name a few. She spent the summer fretting about everything, and coming to the realization that she really did deserve better. Her dad was ecstatic when she told him she was planning on going to law school after Hearst.

She imagined her life going right for once. She would get a law degree, become a lawyer, move to New York, maybe get married some day (with Piz maybe), have a family…

She placed her hands on her forehead in frustration. What was she telling herself? When your best friend is murdered and you spend your last two years of high school staking out cheap motels and taking dirty pictures – in addition to almost getting yourself killed on several occasions – it's pretty hard to get yourself back to any sense of normal.

She sat there for about half an hour before getting up and packing her things. It wasn't hard. She didn't have a lot of stuff to pack. Piz walked in the door about fifteen minutes later. His puppy eyes scrunched up and his face tilted like a confused dog.

"Veronica, what's going on?"

"Something came up?"

"What came up? Is everything alright?"

She didn't bother looking away from her suitcase. "It's… it's a case."

Awkward silence followed. Veronica wanted to be straightforward, but she wasn't about to tell Piz the whole truth. "I just need you to trust me on this one, okay? This is important. And it's a lot of money I can use toward loans."

"Okay."

This one word was symbol enough for the fact that Piz really did have too much faith in her. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said. "If it's that important… What is it?"

"I can't really talk about it," she replied, throwing a few pairs of pants in the suitcase. "That whole confidentiality thing, you know?"

"Have you called the firm to talk to them about leaving early?"

"No."

"Are you sure this is - ?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," she said while zipping it up. "I'm going to book a flight for early tomorrow morning if I can. I know I won't see you until school starts up again and I feel really bad."

"Don't."

She hesitated before leaning in and kissing him. She really didn't appreciate him enough. He was sweet and wonderful. Probably the best boyfriend she'd ever had. When she saw him again, things were going to change. She was going to make sure she was the best girlfriend he'd ever had.

The following morning Veronica got up at the crack of dawn to get ready to leave. She tried calling the law firm several times, but she wasn't able to get through. The thought of going back to Neptune made her die a little inside, but there was still some part of her that knew it was a good thing. All she knew was it was gonna be a long flight home.


End file.
